Choose Me
by mhd123
Summary: Liz and Criss are getting married. Complications ensue.
1. Chapter 1

Spoilers: Through Season 6

Jack Donaghy is numb.

He should be feeling something, he thinks. His dearest friend is getting married. He should be happy for her, or jealous that she was with someone and he wasn't, or at least churlish that after all he'd done for her, this interloper was going to come in and replace him at the center of her life.

But instead, he is numb. Numb in the face of what is about to happen, what is happening, something he could see as clearly as if he was out of his body, hovering over the city and taking in everything.

He braces himself for the storm.

***

"So they wouldn't give us the license."

"Is that so?" Jack plays dumb. "Why is that?"

Liz isn't bothering to conceal her anger and irritation. "I think you know why, Jack," she seethes. "Or should I say, _dear_."

Jack winces.

"Why didn't you submit the paperwork?"

"Would you have wanted to be the one to tell Avery? That she and I were not only not legally married, but that instead I'd married someone she already found somewhat suspect?"

"How could you not tell me that we were still married!"

"I was _trying_ to forget that it ever happened. It _did_ make divorcing Avery a whole lot easier. And what would you have said? You would have demanded I fix the paperwork. After a while, the lie was too big to confess."

Liz grits her teeth, eyes bulging in frustration.

"Elizabeth, I'm sorry... but Avery had already tried to split you and me up once. I didn't want to give her an excuse to do it again."

That defuses her a bit. "Well, Jack, if you could just turn it in, now. I'm trying to get married next week."

Jack just sits there, quietly, stroking his thumbs together.

"Oh God, you want me to write the pilot for the _Kabletown Small Government Hour_, don't you?"

"I do, but that's not what I'm hesitating about. Unlike _some people_, I would never use this... situation for business advantage."

"So then what's the problem?"

He pauses again, looking at her in a way that makes Liz wonder if she'd overlooked something obvious.

"The idea of another divorce is... difficult for me."

"So, what? Are we supposed to stay married then so you can keep your divorce count down?"

Jack frowns. "Of course not. I'll turn in the paperwork immediately."

"Thank you." Liz turns to leave, aggravated that Jack was being so weird about this, and still smarting over the fight she'd had with Criss. Over Jack. He was supposed to make her life easier, not complicate it.

***

But Liz soon has much more elemental things to worry about. She doesn't find out about the fire in her apartment till she gets home that night, and it is in the wee hours of the morning that she finds Criss, badly burned and in critical condition, at a local hospital.

When after a late-night vigil, she calls Jack and tells him she wouldn't be in that morning, he shows up immediately to check up on them. He holds her tightly as she quietly weeps.

"What are the doctors saying?"

"They don't know yet."

"Elizabeth. You should go home and get some rest."

"I don't have a home anymore."

"Then stay with me."

***

Criss, of course, has no health insurance. It was Jack's paperwork "mishap" that had delayed their marriage and denied him Liz's benefits. The only decent thing to do, under the circumstances, was cover Criss's bills.

He will be in the hospital for quite a while; what happens in those weeks, as Liz's place undergoes repairs, catches Jack by surprise. Jack and Liz settle into a domestic routine. She takes a couple of hours each afternoon to visit the hospital, but afterwards they arrive home from work, often together, and have a meal prepared by his chef. He finds that Liz's appreciation for the good food heightens his own.

If Liddy is at his place, Lemon plays with her a bit. She doesn't have a lot of experience with children, but she is a quick (and motivated) learner. Pretty soon, she is making Liddy smile and laugh in ways that Liddy's tightly wound parents never can.

He starts to treasure those moments. Almost as much as he cherishes the times when, as the night lengthens, Liz's thoughts get her down, and Jack simply holds her, perhaps lightly stroking her hair or her shoulder. He can't help but think, _this is what a real marriage to Lemon would be like._ And he can't find anything wrong with it all. How tempting it is to call his lawyer, and ask him to sit on the paperwork making its way through the system.

But Lemon has promised herself to someone else, someone who at this very moment is fighting for his life in a hospital room.

***  
As luck would have it, Criss's recovery is faster than the apartment's. It is through gritted teeth that Jack invites Criss into his home as well. He appreciates what Criss does for Lemon, how he makes her happy; but he is simply not constitutionally capable of liking a man with Criss's foibles and worldview.

Nevertheless, it does give him an opportunity to view them up close. He does make her laugh, Jack thinks, before silently cursing that the twists of life have placed him in competition with this... _nobody_, a nobody who doesn't even realize he has a rival.

But he has to wonder if he ever has - or ever could - make her smile in quite that way.

***

It's a Wednesday afternoon that the apartment is finally ready. Criss is already packing stuff up while Liz finishes the work day.

Jack and Liz take the car home together before Liz goes to spend the night at her place. Jack mourns that the day has finally come. His domestic bliss will slide quickly away, as she moves away, the divorce is finalized, she gets remarried, and TGS inevitably winds down. The strands that bind them will be torn asunder, one by one.

The car pulls up to his front door and Liz sticks her foot out the door to get out. It's now or never; Jack grabs her wrist and holds it firmly. She looks back at him, surprised.

"Lemon." It's a command, not a question.

She watches his piercing gaze as she waits for his point.

"Choose me."

_End Ch 1._


	2. Chapter 2

"Choose me."

Jack expects Lemon to not have any idea what he's talking about, and ask for an explanation. But she doesn't. It's clear in her eyes that she immediately understands, although she is undoubtedly in shock.

"I've gotta go. To go move." Jack releases her, Liz practically runs to the door and is back upstairs with Criss before Jack can catch up.

She pretends that the conversation didn't happen and they're out of there in an hour. Jack sits down with a glass of scotch and deals with his rejection. Too late and too improvised, he thinks to himself. He concedes that she may never have thought of him that way, anyway.

***

Thursday morning is agonizing. Jack sits behind his desk, resisting all urges to go to the sixth floor. He actually has TGS business to discuss, but email will have to do.

As always seems to happen in the enormous building, it's the elevators that connect them. On his way down that evening, it's Lemon standing outside the door on six. He can read her thoughts as she processes them: _Nerds, it's Jack. I'll wait for the next one. But no, that would be weird. And that would acknowledge the conversation we had yesterday. I guess I have to go in._

So she steps in.

"Lemon," he acknowledges.

"Jack."

She looks pretty: her hair has a flattering clip in it, and she's not wearing her glasses. Jack considers saying so, but doesn't.

It's silence as they go down: five, four, three, and it's almost over.

Lemon stops the elevator and cautiously moves to him. She keeps her gaze on him as her arms slide around his neck. She regards him for a moment, as Jack is too shocked to say anything.

"What the hell."

She plants her lips on his. It's exploratory, but oh does it feel nice.

As she withdraws, Jack knows the surprise and pleasure are obvious on his face.

"What was that about?"

She restarts the elevator. "I had to see."

"And?"

The door opens. She steps out and turns.

"This isn't about your divorce count?"

"No."

"Then I have to think about it."

The door shuts on Jack just standing there, leaning against the rail and contemplating what just happened. He can't contain his smile.

***

"So what got into you?"

Jack hadn't really expected Lemon to have the courage to come into his office and _confront_ him about this.

"For years, I've said I can't do without you."

"But not in that way."

"This is the first time I've been about to lose you."

"You're asking a lot, Jack. I've got a sure thing here."

He doesn't stop looking into her eyes. "I know."

"And you and me... it's not fair."

"But is it enough?" he offers.

Liz seems to despair of the choice before her. If life was about minimizing regrets, there was just no way she wasn't going to end up regretting something.

"I don't know."

***

Jack doesn't see Liz for a couple of days afterwards, days where he really can't concentrate on the tasks before him. It is late in the evening of the third day that she slips into his office; her body language is grim but determined.

"So I don't think we should do the script changes you wanted."

Jack wonders if she's really talking about the script changes, or if that's some kind of metaphor for what he wants most of all. He decides Lemon isn't quite that slick, that literary.

"Alright, Lemon, we can go over it again in the morning."

There's a pause.

"Is that all?" Jack is certain she didn't come up to tell him just that, given how much she'd relied on email the last few days.

She's not wearing her glasses again. Jack isn't sure if that makes it worse or not, given the emotional attachment he's developed to those frames on that face.

"No. I also just wanted to say what a tough thing this has been for me to work through." Her expression is serious, not entirely succeeding in bottling up her emotions. Her left hand sweeps her hair behind her ear.

It's then that Jack notices. He feels the ground fall out from under him. He's built a career out of containing feelings when he needs to, but it takes every ounce of his fortitude and moral courage to not yell, or whimper, out his next question. And indeed, his voice quivers a bit.

"Lemon, are you wearing a _wedding ring?_"

She allows herself a small smile, fanning her hand out before him in the age-old fashion. Her tone is hopeful, half laughing and half crying. "Yeah. Do you like it?"

"It's beautiful." Jack says it with wonder, and envy that Criss would do such a good job. There's a show tomorrow, but it feels like he's saying goodbye to Lemon forever. And after sticking his neck out like he did in the car that evening, maybe it can only be polite business for the rest of their lives. "It's entirely to your taste."

Liz glances down at it. "It should be. I bought it myself."

Jack's self-pity is replaced with genuine concern for his friend and the kind of man she's hitched herself to. He furrows his brow to ask, "He couldn't afford it?"

"Oh no, he could definitely afford it."

Jack squints, confused.

"It's just that... it's just that I knew he'd never get around to buying me one. He hasn't done it _yet_," Liz can't quite suppress a smirk, "and we've been married for two years."

_END_


End file.
